Two vehicles were destroyed in the attack at Jannabiat al-Hay, 40 kilometres south of Kut, he said.

A spokeswoman for the US-led coalition said they were not aware of any such attack.

Bus passengers killed

A roadside bomb has killed 14 Iraqis and wounded 12 others travelling by bus to Baghdad, a doctor at a nearby hospital said.

Abbas Wissan al-Shamari, a doctor at the hospital in the town of Iskandariya, 50 kilometres south of Baghdad, said the bus was taking people to the capital but he had no immediate further details.

Witnesses said the bus was driving just ahead of a convoy of six US military vehicles when the roadside bomb, a favourite guerrilla weapon against the occupying forces, exploded.

Local people rushed to the scene from a nearby village to help the injured and dead to hospital, the witnesses said.

They said US troops sealed off the area.

Fallujah

A two-year-old child was killed and six more people wounded when shelling and gunfire hit their house in the Iraqi city of Fallujah, besieged by US marines, according to a relative and a nurse.

"We were in our house when three shells fell on the neighborhood, including one that hit the first floor and went through to the ground floor before exploding," said Hanan Abdel Baki, 27, herself wounded.

"We came out of the rubble with my brother and his son, Mortada, who died of a shrapnel wound to the neck, and my two daughters," who were wounded.

Ismail Ibrahim, a nurse at the clinic, said that in addition to Baki and her two daughters, three others were wounded.

Market attack

At least 14 Iraqis were killed and 36 wounded when rockets or mortar bombs slammed into a busy market in a Shiite suburb of Baghdad, witnesses and hospital sources said.

Witnesses said at least two projectiles hit the chicken market in the Ourfalli neighbourhood of Sadr City.

Abdul-Jabbar al-Zubeidi, director of a nearby hospital, said several of the wounded were in critical condition.

"The second hit a gas canister and the explosion was huge. There was blood and bodies everywhere."

It was not clear who had fired the weapons.

Car bomb

Earlier, a car bomb exploded in the Iraqi town of Tikrit, killing and injuring a number of people.

A booby-trapped car is thought to have exploded near an American military base.

Police in Tikrit say that four policemen were killed and 16 others injured, along with four civilians.

It is not known who was behind the attack.

Tikrit is Saddam Hussein's home town and has been a focal point of resistance against the coalition.

In a separate incident, US forces have been involved in clashes in Baghdad's Sadah city area.

They were reportedly attempting to raid a mosque.

One Iraqi was killed and three others badly burned after fighting caused a fire, which spread to cars and buildings.

Five insurgents who were preparing an ambush near Iraq's holy city of Kerbala were killed by a Polish patrol.

A spokesman for the Polish contingent said there were killed when the Poles returned fire after coming under attack.

And three Iraqis were arrested in connection with suicide bomb attacks that killed 74 people and injured more than 160 in southern Iraq on Wednesday, and 3.5 tonnes of explosives were found in their truck, a police official said.

"We believe these three Iraqis are linked to the attacks," Captain Jassem Darragi told AFP, saying the suspects were arrested on Friday.